Falklands to Barbados 2012

Vessel Name:

Cutting Edge

Vessel Make/Model:

Bowman 48

Hailing Port:

Southampton

Crew:

Carl Freeman, Betty Romo and Tim Thorogood

About:

Originally from Australia, Carl has lived in the Falklands for over 30 years. He arrived on his and his wife Dianne's yacht in 1980 having sailed from New Zealand around the Horn. [...]He designed and built his current boat Pale Maiden in the Falklands and has skippered her to St Helena and Uruguay on several occasions.
Betty is a Canadian who arrived in the Falklands with her husband Luis in 2010 on their boat Ave del Mar, having sailed from Canada via Pacific islands to the Chilean Channels, where they spent several months before coming to the Falklands.
Tim and his wife Alison arrived in the Falklands (by plane!) in 2008 and they have sailed Cutting Edge around the Islands since that time.

30 May 2012 | Barbados (ashore!)

Well, we're now getting settled in to our new home (31A Sunrise Street, Atlantic Shores, Christ Church, Barbados) which has included stripping Cutting Edge of most of her stores, all our personal gear which she was transporting and also many of the tools she carried.

26 May 2012 | Barbados

23 May 2012 | En route to Barbados

21 May 2012 | En route to Barbados

We are now en route to Barbados having left Isle du Salut this morning. We had some excitement as we left our mooring as the boat got stuck in reverse and speeding towards the shore only about 50 meters away. Fortunately by steering really hard over (in reverse) we managed to do a circle without hitting the shore and worked our way out of the harbour in this eccentric fashion (boat is not great to steer in reverse). Eventually we dropped anchor and investigated to find that the transmission control cable had simply sheered off. We've set off anyway as we can work the gears from the transmission housing though that involves running below, not practical for a mooring in Barbados with only two crew. Hopefully we can develop a work around in the meantime. Our other problem right now is that the wind is from the North! It's good though to be only 590 nm from our final destination and we are busy talking through our first few days in Barbados. We plan to have Cutting Edge lifted out pretty much straight away (there is no real marina). Anyway, let's see how we get on over the next couple of days, at this rate we'll be in Trinidad (due to wind direction) ......

12 May 2012 | Iles du Salut, Guyane Francaise

Arrived at the Salvation Islands yesterday about 1500 after a fast journey from Cayenne (30 miles). Anchored very close to shore to avoid the swell but still rather bouncy overnight. Today we picked up a Police/customs bouy and we are still on it this evening so fingers crossed! The tiny islands are beautiful, palm trees and other exotic vegetation everywhere, lovely walks with great views across the water to Kourou and to Devil's Island. Prison buildings impressive. We have even found a bar with great views and are really pleased. It has been very hot today, which has been largely clear of the successive bouts of torrential rain we have otherwise had in Guyane. We plan to stay here tomorrow and leave on Monday, should arrive Barbados by Friday! Nice to see the comments on the blog: thanks again for those. Off now to down some more Pims.....

5 days to reflect

The sight of Barbados as it appeared out of the clouds was one of the best sights I can remember, not only for it's beauty, but at the thought of being on dry land very soon!

The voyage for me was a personal achievement, but not one I would want to repeat. That said given the choice again, I would still make the journey. The night watches were tedious, long and demanding for the two of us, but we stood up to the challenge well. The constant movement and unexpected big waves made most things, including those considered straightforward on dry land, hard work and often eventful.
The stops at various locations were vital to re-coup energy levels, but were also amazing as we visited places we would not go to as a tourist.

Cutting Edge is a wonderful boat and she looked after us well. Other than some relatively minor repairs she looks in good shape, better than me if I'd been battered by the sea for 8,000.
I am very pleased to be in a nice ‘still’ bed every night without Tim waking me to call me for my watch or seek assistance as a ship had crept up on him!

Barbados is beautiful, warm weather, gentle winds, turquoise sea and golden sand, what more can a girl want!

Thanks to everyone for their comments on the blog and e-mails throughout the voyage.

I will add some photos soon, but hopefully the arrival photo I've added will give you a flavour of our life in Barbados

Love to everyone
Alison x

Comments

Reflections

30 May 2012 | Barbados (ashore!)

Tim

Well, we're now getting settled in to our new home (31A Sunrise Street, Atlantic Shores, Christ Church, Barbados) which has included stripping Cutting Edge of most of her stores, all our personal gear which she was transporting and also many of the tools she carried.

She was lifted out yesterday and now sits conspicously in the boatyard near the port in Bridgetown. I've attached a photo of her being lifted out.

We were delighted to see the near perfect condition of her undersides including rudder and propeller.

We have a lot to do on her in terms of cleaning and polishing, normal maintenance plus backlog of repairs arising from the voyage. We will also be doing a lot of re-sealing of the deck and coach roof fittings many of which are showing early signs of water ingress in to the balsa sub-structure.

I feel a great sense of achievement having completed an 8,000 mile voyage most of it across the open sea. I can't say I really enjoyed the experience to be honest, it was long and tiring: in many ways an endurance test. I haven't got the cruising bug and I'm not just about to rush off and join the Ocean Cruising Club. Niether has it been 'a life changing experience'. I think both Alison and I are pleased to be in Barbados and able to progress our various plans and projects.

Having said that, Alison and I did get a lot from the challenge of sailing long distances together. We worked very well as a team. We also enjoyed the various places we visited. I think we just felt it was too long overall and took too long.

Alison only joined at Ascension of course for the shorter half of the journey. It was fantastic to have her arrive there, particularly not having seen her since mid January.

Equally it was sad to lose Carl and Betty at that point. They are both first class 'blue water' sailors with masses of experience: I learned a lot from them and enjoyed their company hugely. Carl's humour and Betty's cooking helped sustain us all through the quite difficult (long) days on the journey to St Helena. I consider myself to have been very lucky to sail with them and am hugely grateful.

I'm looking forward to getting Cutting Edge back in the water in 4 months' time or so. Then it will hopefully be pleasant Caribbean sailing, relatively short journeys (to me that means up to 600 miles: to Alison 6 miles up the coast for lunch.....!).

Very many thanks again to all those who have followed our blog and in particular those who have commented either on the blog or in private e-mails. It was really good to know people were taking and interest and to see the various comments.

It would be good to see anyone who has been following this in the Caribbean if the chance arises: just e-mail Timthorogood@aol.com.

Best wishes.

Tim

Comments

Arrived!

26 May 2012 | Barbados

Tim

Dear All,

We have arrived in Barbados!

After a tiring and tiresome journey up from French Guyana (constantly shifting winds, confused seas, rain, too many close ships at night) we finally saw Barbados at about 0700 local (1300 utc) yesterday and by 0900 were just off Bridgetown. We then had a lovely sail up the west coast amongst other yachts, small fishing boats, beaches, sun and a fresh easterly wind before arriving at Port St Charles and berthing about 1200.

Port St Charles is a luxury house + mooring development and its visitor berths are aimed at superyachts. We were directed to a mooring only to find it far too high for us and had to make a quick exit to adjust our mooring gear before trying again.

Cutting Edge is now berthed at a superyacht berth and I've uploaded a picture of her.

After mooring and completing formalities we obtained a vehicle and drove down to our new home on the south coast. Very shortly we were fast asleep and did not wake up until this morning!

We have been back to Cutting Edge today and now most of our gear is unloaded and in the house. She will be lifted out at Willie's Yard near Bridgetown on Tuesday and stored ashore for a few months whilst we clean her and complete a long list of repairs.

We are delighted to have completed the voyage: exactly three months after it started on 25 February in Stanley and just over 8,000 nautical miles. We are also delighted to be finally in this wonderful island which is also of course my homeland.

Alison and I will upload our reflections on the journey and arrival in the next day or so plus lots of pictures. In the meantime a big thanks again to all those who have posted comments and/or e-mailed us privately on the journey: we have enjoyed reading the comments each day and they have really helped us along the way. A big thanks for that.

Comments

We're starting to smell the coconuts

23 May 2012 | En route to Barbados

Alison

We are now about 260 miles from Barbados.

We went through a low pressure area about 36 hours ago which gave us plenty of speed but unfortunately quite a bit of rain. Since then the winds have dropped and we are limping along at 6 knots. According to Tim that's fast based on some points in the journey before I joined the boat, however for me I've been used to speeds of 7-11 knots. Speed aside the weather is fantastic, just as you would imagine the Caribbean to be, turquoise sea, light winds and very warm.

Tim is working on our transmission problem. I'm hoping he will fix something to avoid me sitting by the engine compartment as we approach the pontoon changing gear and at the last minute and once we're in neutral dashing up the companion way collecting the lines and leaping for the shore. We could make quite a grand entrance!

We hope to arrive, subject to wind of course, sometime Friday morning. As suggested by John and Charlene we have a bottle of champagne ready to open.

I had an interesting e-mail from my good friend Fiona who said she imagined me on my night Watch with my gin and tonic, strumming my guitar. Just incase anyone else has this glamorous image, a Watch at night consists of 4 lonely hours looking out at a big empty ocean, 12 minute radar scans to make sure there are no vessels in your path, all this with nothing to keep you company other than the snores of your partner below, a chocolate bar a mug of orange and no guitar!

We've really enjoyed reading the comments on our blog, even if there were a few Welsh words thrown in from Dianne, I'll get them translated later!

Comments

Final leg

21 May 2012 | En route to Barbados

Tim

We are now en route to Barbados having left Isle du Salut this morning. We had some excitement as we left our mooring as the boat got stuck in reverse and speeding towards the shore only about 50 meters away. Fortunately by steering really hard over (in reverse) we managed to do a circle without hitting the shore and worked our way out of the harbour in this eccentric fashion (boat is not great to steer in reverse). Eventually we dropped anchor and investigated to find that the transmission control cable had simply sheered off. We've set off anyway as we can work the gears from the transmission housing though that involves running below, not practical for a mooring in Barbados with only two crew. Hopefully we can develop a work around in the meantime. Our other problem right now is that the wind is from the North! It's good though to be only 590 nm from our final destination and we are busy talking through our first few days in Barbados. We plan to have Cutting Edge lifted out pretty much straight away (there is no real marina). Anyway, let's see how we get on over the next couple of days, at this rate we'll be in Trinidad (due to wind direction) ......

Comments

Salvation Islands

12 May 2012 | Iles du Salut, Guyane Francaise

Tim

Arrived at the Salvation Islands yesterday about 1500 after a fast journey from Cayenne (30 miles). Anchored very close to shore to avoid the swell but still rather bouncy overnight. Today we picked up a Police/customs bouy and we are still on it this evening so fingers crossed! The tiny islands are beautiful, palm trees and other exotic vegetation everywhere, lovely walks with great views across the water to Kourou and to Devil's Island. Prison buildings impressive. We have even found a bar with great views and are really pleased. It has been very hot today, which has been largely clear of the successive bouts of torrential rain we have otherwise had in Guyane. We plan to stay here tomorrow and leave on Monday, should arrive Barbados by Friday! Nice to see the comments on the blog: thanks again for those. Off now to down some more Pims.....